Hospitalist Certificate Program

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is happy to offer a Hospitalist Certificate Program for residents with a strong interest in pursuing a career in hospital medicine. The hospitalist certificate program is dedicated to training senior residents on various aspects of hospital medicine. The program focuses on the domains of leadership in medicine, business of medicine, quality improvement, patient safety, multidisciplinary care, and professional development. Educational leaders from the Section of Hospital Medicine and UPMC leadership participate in the program to share their unique areas of expertise.

Selection Process

Residents are selected through a competitive application process in the spring of their second year and the program runs through the end of their residency.

General Program Requirements

Includes 4 weeks on the MUH Junior Hospitalist Service, 2 weeks of General Internal Medicine Consults, a 2-week Hospitalist Education Elective, 2 weeks of an inpatient-focused elective (POCUS, addiction medicine, palliative care, etc.) and participation in the monthly in-person longitudinal didactic curriculum.

Recommended, but not required: an additional 4 weeks of a hospitalist floor rotation during your PGY-3 year (if you rotated on MUH JHOS as a PGY2).

MUH Junior Hospitalist Service

Residents in their second- or third-year function in the role of a practicing hospitalist physician under the supervision of an experienced core group of hospitalists. The most unique aspect of this rotation is the autonomy and that the residents will not be working with interns or medical students. The goal is for the residents to feel comfortable managing their patients independently. Residents are responsible for developing the plan of care and conducting all conversations with consultants, primary care physicians, family, and patients.  It is an opportunity to work with multidisciplinary staff, perform procedures and learn time management and efficiency for delivering inpatient care. Learning occurs at the bedside and afternoon teaching sessions focused on content related to hospital medicine with topics such as billing, coding, documentation, POCUS, high value-care. The afternoon teaching sessions are geared towards higher level of learning compared to the traditional medicine teams as the team is composed of all senior residents.

General Medicine Consults

Provides residents the opportunity to develop the skills and knowledge base necessary to effectively perform internal medicine consults on non-medicine inpatients.  Specific areas of focus include preoperative medical risk assessment and management, current evidence-based guidelines, and co-management of surgical patients. Residents will become competent in answering consult questions, providing recommendations and facilitating care as a consultant.

Longitudinal Didactic Curriculum

Monthly didactics and workshops on understanding health systems, the business of medicine including healthcare finance, and professional development that complement the two-week hospitalist education elective and clinical rotations. This includes how physicians are paid, institutional economics, defining and describing your professional identity, and how to find mentors after graduation and be a good mentee.

Hospitalist Education Elective

Two week experience involving didactics, workshops, hands on experiences, and independent study to further explore the pillars of quality improvement, patient safety, leadership in medicine, the business of medicine, and professional development.  This includes small group discussions with hospital leadership, diving into hospital metrics, and finding how decisions at different levels affect providers and the hospital system as a whole. Additional experiences include practicing taking MedCalls, mortality reviews, wound care rounds, and participating in various hospital committee meetings. In small groups, residents complete contextual inquiry and a process map on an inpatient issue of their choice to gain hands-on quality improvement experience.

Career Development

Residents are paired with a job search mentor to help guide them through the process including cover letter, CV development, interview preparation and contract/negotiation advice. They are also coached on how to develop short and long term personal and professional goals.

For additional information or questions about this program, please contact Ann Perrin.